Around the World: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Since I published the original edition of my first book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, in 1979, it has been astonishing to see how far it has traveled around the globe.  Clearly, there is a hunger to learn perceptual skills through learning to draw, and we know for a fact that this also has far-reaching effects on thinking skills in general.  Learning to draw is valuable, whether or not you choose to pursue a career in the arts.  In the complex world in which we live, it is so important that people strengthen their own perceptual skills to see things as they truly are, as well as to appreciate the beauty that is all around us.

This article was published in the Los Angeles Times a few years before Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was released.

Over the years, through this website, I have received thousands of heartfelt messages from readers.  Just today, one came in from a Finnish reader: “Hi, I am from Finland and just wanted to say thank you of the best drawing book I ever seen. I bought it several years ago, but found it again and started just few months ago do exercises. Wonderful book and I just wanted to say thank you.”  Another Scandinavian reader sent a message a few days ago.  I had met her in Los Angeles many years ago, and on June 21, 2024, she wrote this kind message: “When I got back in Sweden I wrote about our meeting and it effected my teaching ever since. Later I wrote a doctoral thesis in the same academic field. This message is to tell Betty what a precious memory that meeting is. Please send her my best regards.”

I hear from so many wonderful readers in England, France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere in Europe, as well as Eastern Europe and Russia, China and the Far East, India, Mexico, and South America.  I love it!  Forty-five years ago, when the book was first released, I could never have dreamed how it would be helpful to a global audience.  Today, my books are translated into 25 languages.

Wherever you live, and whatever language you speak, I hope you will take the time to learn to draw – you will find so much beauty and joy in the world around you!

~ Betty

Betty Edwards

Photo by Francesca Bahari Bomeisler

 

Books by Betty Edwards are currently published in these languages:

·         Arabic

·         Bulgarian

·         Chinese (Complex Characters)

·         Chinese (Simplified Characters)

·         Croatian

·         Czech

·         Danish

·         English

·         Finnish

·         French

·         German

·         Hungarian

·         Italian

·         Japanese

·         Korean

·         Lithuanian

·         Norwegian

·         Polish

·         Portuguese

·         Romanian

·         Russian

·         Spanish

·         Swedish

·         Thai

·         Turkish

This “upside-down drawing” of Stravinsky has been a key tool in teaching students to access their “R-Mode” in learning to draw.

The Cognitive Benefits of Handwriting: How It Boosts Memory and Learning

The following article confirms what I’ve always believed — that there are huge cognitive benefits to handwriting, particularly in script or cursive. Give it a try! As the author says, “Not only will you reap the cognitive benefits, but you might also rediscover the joy of writing by hand.”

Posted by Zara Nwosu 21 Feb 2024 at https://medriva.com/health/brain-health/the-cognitive-benefits-of-handwriting-how-it-boosts-memory-and-learning/

In an era dominated by digital technology, it can often feel like handwriting is becoming a lost art. However, a growing body of research suggests that the act of writing by hand has significant cognitive benefits, particularly for memory and learning. This article delves into the science behind these benefits and offers practical advice for incorporating more handwriting into our lives.

Handwriting and Brain Activity

Engaging the fine motor system to write by hand has been shown to have positive effects on learning and memory. When we write letters by hand, it leads to higher levels of electrical activity in our brain. These regions are responsible for movement, vision, sensory processing, and memory. Handwriting requires active engagement with incoming information, leading to better retention and understanding of the concepts. It also activates widespread connectivity across many brain regions, strengthening the connection between motor action and visual/conceptual recognition.

Handwriting vs. Typing

Studies have shown that handwriting is more effective than typing when it comes to boosting memory. This could be due to the tangible product that handwriting produces, which may engage our brains in a way that typing on a digital device does not. A study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that handwriting activated more brain regions and connections compared to typing, potentially enhancing learning and memory. The study analyzed brain activity in 36 university students and found increased connectivity across various brain regions linked to visual processing, motor control, and memory when writing by hand.

Handwriting in Early Education

Handwriting also plays a crucial role in early education. It has been shown to improve letter recognition in preschool children and helps them learn to distinguish between similar letters. This is particularly important in preschool and kindergarten, where children's brains are growing rapidly. Despite the increasing reliance on digital writing tools, experts emphasize the importance of engaging children in drawing and handwriting activities to stimulate their growing brains. In fact, eight North Carolina schools were named National Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education for their commitment to academic performance and progress in closing achievement gaps among student groups, highlighting the impact of traditional teaching methods.

The Impact of Handwriting on the Brain

Handwriting can have a range of benefits for the brain, including a calming effect, coordination of the left and right brain, boosting cognitive skills, inspiring creativity, sharpening aging minds, and improving memory. It also involves more of the brain than typing does. This is especially important for aging individuals, as it can help keep their minds sharp and active. Furthermore, handwriting adds a personal touch to communication, which can enhance our connection with others.

Cognitive Offloading and Digital Devices

While digital devices offer numerous benefits, over-reliance can lead to cognitive offloading. This is when we rely on external tools, such as smartphones or computers, to remember information for us, potentially impacting our memory and motor skills. Therefore, it's important to strike a balance between the convenience of digital tools and the cognitive benefits of handwriting. The key is to incorporate handwriting into our daily routines, whether it's jotting down notes, keeping a journal, or simply doodling on a notepad.

Conclusion

In conclusion, handwriting is more than just a way to communicate. It engages our brains in ways that typing simply cannot replicate, leading to improved memory, learning, and cognitive development. So, whether you're a student looking to enhance your learning or an adult wanting to keep your mind sharp, consider putting pen to paper more often. Not only will you reap the cognitive benefits, but you might also rediscover the joy of writing by hand.

Some Thoughts from Iain McGilchrist on "The Divided Brain"

I want to strongly recommend that you listen to the podcast interview of Dr. Iain McGilchrist, the renowned psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher, and literary scholar:  Click here for podcast audio and transcription.

 At the moment, there are a lot of criticisms and disputes about right brain/left brain capabilities, even among scientific circles. But the fact is that as human beings, we have two ways of dealing with reality. No matter where in the brain this happens, we see, on one hand (or one side of the brain), specific step-by-step plans, processes, etc., and on the other hand (or side), we confront the whole picture.  The problem is that the verbal, numerical part of the brain, the so-called “left brain,” more and more dominates our human experience.  This is happening because of the left-brain emphasis throughout modern human culture, including education, which is focused almost solely on left-brain capabilities and tends to ignore the power of right-brain visual thinking.

My hope is that we will get beyond the idea that the left brain does all the work, and the right brain has all the fun.  It’s not that at all!  We know so much more now about the brain than we knew in the 1960s and 70s. Today, we know that we must find better ways to listen to and see what our right brain is trying to communicate to us about what is happening in our world.

I very much admire the work of Iain McGilchrist and commend to you his books and articles, including The Master and His Emissary and The Matter With Things.  This is a particularly good interview on Prairie Public Radio; here is a short excerpt from Dr. McGilchrist:

 “Well, you can imagine I was advised not to because there was a period in the 60s and 70s when people were enthusiastic about this. And then later in the 20th century, piece by piece of research suggested that, in fact, both hemispheres were involved in everything. And all that really shows us is that we'd answer the question ‘what the difference is’ wrongly.

 In other words, it's not true that the left is a little bit boring, but highly dependable, rational, linguistic. And the right hemisphere is a little bit given to going off on a creative thing and not dependable and a bit emotional. This is not what it's about.”

…

 “And what effectively I've found is that it's to do with these two kinds of attention, which are, you know, of evolutionary high importance. So, in order to get food, you need to pose a kind of targeted, narrow- beam attention to some little thing to get it. But to see the rest of the picture, including to see predators while you're getting your lunch, you don't want to become somebody else's, well then, you need another part of the brain that's doing just the opposite: looking out for the whole picture in a sustained, broad, open, vigilant way.”

~  Betty Edwards

The Reading Wars: What Are the Basic Skills of Reading and Who Gets to Say What They Are?

The subject of how to effectively teach reading to young children is one that has long fascinated me, as I can see parallels between the way that we should teach drawing and the way we should teach reading.  The skill of reading as with drawing is fundamental to a child and ultimately to an adult.  It is the key to comprehending the world, to being an informed citizen, and to having a successful life.

At this moment, a knock-down, drag-out battle is gaining momentum among American elementary education experts and teachers. And at risk is nothing less than America’s future in terms of how we teach our youngest public school students how to read.  The two sides, labeled “the science of reading” and “balanced literacy,” have been vying for power for nearly thirty years, largely out of view of the general American public because the primary targets of this struggle have been small children in kindergarten, first, and second grade.  But the long-term effects of the so-called “reading wars” are now affecting perhaps two-thirds of our schoolchildren, whose abilities to fully use language for thinking, planning, and achieving their goals have been restricted by faulty and inadequate reading skills acquired in their earliest school years.

Fortunately, we at least have national testing that has revealed the problem.  At fourth grade, two-thirds of American children are “not proficient in reading.”  By eighth grade, there is no improvement and even a slight decline, and the reading problems continue through high school and into adulthood unless parents have funded costly private interventions. Also fortunately, American experts on the science of reading—how to “sound out” unfamiliar words using a process called “phonics” or “phonetics”—are raising ever more powerful scientific objections to the “balanced literacy” reading-instruction methods that mainly rely on children guessing what the letters spell out.

The story of how and why this disaster happened (and only in America) is a fascinating one, involving a charismatic lead teacher, Lucy Calkins, a Professor at Columbia University Teachers College, and implicating the enormous and profitable textbook market.  In this compelling ARTICLE, published on February 11, 2023, The New York Times’s Opinion writer Nicholas Kristof, lays out in clear language how this long-term battle is heating up.

Kristof begins his piece by noting that “Education isn’t the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” He continues:  “Reading may be the most important skill we can give children. It’s the pilot light of that fire.  Yet we fail to ignite that pilot light, so today some one in five adults in the United States struggles with basic literacy, and after more than 25 years of campaigns and fads, American children are still struggling to read.”

This is a national tragedy, and my hope is that American education will come to its senses and teachers will once again help young children learn to sound out words with phonics, a method grounded in neuroscience as well as historic evidence. Of course, I also hope for a day when drawing, art, and visual literacy return to the classroom, and we are educating the “whole brain”! 

~ Betty Edwards, February 21, 2023

The Wonder of Color

This article by scholar Kim Biel in Lapham’s Quarterly is a fascinating and well-researched rumination on the ever-fascinating subject of color, ranging from painting to photography and back to the natural world: "New Look, Same Great Look"

The article begins:

“Color is among the most challenging aspects of our experience to describe. Spectrophotometers and colorimeters can quantify light waves, yet their measurements have little impact on our feeling for color. As the philosopher Zeno Vendler put it, “Vincent van Gogh loved the color yellow—and certainly not because of its wavelength.” Color is infamous for its variability in language and perception. How can we know that what we are seeing is the same as what someone else sees? How can we separate what we are seeing from the thing itself? Or, as Ludwig Wittgenstein asked in his Remarks on Colour, “Where do we draw the line here between logic and experience?” In the Remarks, written the year before his death in 1951, the philosopher’s thoughts about color invariably lead back to the study of philosophy. What things are knowable? How are they known? What can be determined through philosophical reasoning? Wittgenstein reflected, “Colors are a stimulus to philosophizing.”

Learning to Draw Knows No Language Barrier

Did you know that Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and other Betty Edwards books have been translated into 24 languages and are available around the world?  Since it was first published in the U.S. in 1979, DRSB has been embraced by people who want to learn to draw or by artists honing their skills or enhancing their creativity.

If you speak any of these languages, you can find Betty’s books! Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Complex Characters), Chinese (Simplified Characters), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish…

Let us know if you found Betty’s book in another country, and if it helped you learn to draw!

As we begin 2022, we send our thanks and appreciation to all the DRSB friends around the world.

New in Paperback! Drawing on the Dominant Eye

Just in time for the holidays, Betty Edwards’ newest book has just been released in paperback!  Click here for all the details and links to purchase the book from many sellers, as well as a sample of the audiobook.  Penguin Random House Announcement -- Paperback Edition of Drawing on the Dominant Eye

DRAWING ON THE DOMINANT EYE: DECODING THE WAY WE PERCEIVE, CREATE, AND LEARN

Millions of readers have embraced art teacher Betty Edwards’s Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, from art students and teachers to established artists, corporate trainers, and more–all discovering a bold new way of drawing and problem-solving based on what we see, not what we think we see.

In this highly anticipated follow-up, Edwards illuminates another piece of the creativity puzzle, revealing the role our dominant eye plays in how we perceive, create, and are seen by those around us.  Research shows that much like being right-handed or left-handed, each of us has a dominant eye, corresponding to the dominant side of our brain–either verbal or perceptual.  Once you learn the difference and try your hand at the simple drawing exercises, you’ll gain fresh insights into how you perceive, think, and create.  You’ll learn how to not just look but how to truly see.

Generously illustrated with visual examples, this remarkable guided tour through art history, psychology, and the creative process is a must-read for anyone looking for a richer understanding of our art, our minds, and ourselves.

 

A Conversation with Paola Vojnovic, Art Historian in Florence

In December 2020, when Zoom became the new way to communicate across the miles, I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by Paola Vojnovic, who lives in Florence and is an art historian, teacher, tour guide extraordinaire, and altogether charming conversationalist.  On her website, you will find many fascinating interviews and information on art, Italy, the Renaissance, and life! 

Our conversation in December was sparked by the publication of my new book, DRAWING ON THE DOMINANT EYE: Decoding the Way We Perceive, Create, and Learn, but the interview was far-ranging, and she told me recently that our talk was still the most-frequently accessed video on her website. If you are interested, click here for the link:  Paola's Studiolo: A Conversation with Dr. Betty Edwards.

I’m pleased to announce that in a few weeks, the paperback edition of Drawing on the Dominant Eye will be released and available in bookstores everywhere, or online.  I hope you enjoy it!

~ Betty Edwards

New: 3-Day DRSB Color and Painting Workshops have gone Virtual!

Betty Edwards is delighted to announce that DRSB's virtual art instruction will now include ongoing 3-Day Painting Workshops, led online on Zoom by Brian Bomeisler. 

In just three days, Brian will teach you the basic methods and principles of mixing colors and applying that knowledge to painting a still life.  With specific exercises, the Workshop will help you learn how to mix and match pigments and how to achieve color harmony.  The first two days are designed around the fundamentals of color and how to create a beautiful composition that encompasses hue, value, and intensity.  The third day, these ideas are put to good use with the provided art materials & tools and create your own realistic and harmonious still-life painting.  No prior experience necessary! Register HERE.

COST:  $825, including materials. You will receive:

  • A complete set of acrylic paints

  • Brushes

  • A palette knife

  • Disposable palette for mixing paints and for easy clean-up

  • Prepared painting surfaces and a canvas board

  • A color wheel

  • Reproductions of still life paintings
      

    A Zoom link to sign on to the workshop will be sent to you prior to the workshop.  To register, click HERE.  Questions?  Send an email to Brian at bb4art@gmail.com.


Your Instructor: Brian Bomeisler

Brian received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute (School of Art) in New York in 1975, and has been a working, exhibiting, and teaching artist ever since.  He has received a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his paintings are in museums, corporate, and private collections around the world.  The son of Betty Edwards, he began teaching with her in 1988; and since her retirement in 1998, he has been DRSB's Master Instructor, teaching Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Drawing and Painting Workshops worldwide.  To see examples of Brian’s paintings and works on paper, visit his website at www.brianbomeisler.com.

 

Betty Says:  You Can Learn to Draw Without Leaving Home!

My son, Brian Bomeisler, is himself a gifted artist but he is also a gifted teacher who has been imparting the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain methods for decades, working alongside me and then teaching on his own after my retirement.  During the global pandemic, Brian has moved his in-person 5-day Drawing Workshops to a virtual online platform, and the results are just as amazing. You can join him online, no matter where in the world you live!

Brian Bomeisler and Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and the new book, Drawing on the Dominant Eye.

This is a great time to invest in yourself and bring the joy of drawing into your life!  I highly recommend it!  Click here for a calendar of the upcoming Virtual Drawing Workshop schedule. 

I wish you and your family good health and safety — we will all get through this pandemic if we work together, follow the CDC guidelines, and take care of each other.

~ Betty Edwards

An example from a recent virtual Online Drawing Workshop — the image on the left is the “before” self-portrait, prior to instruction. The image on the right is the student’s final self-portrait after only 6 days working with Brian Bomeisler and usin…

An example from a recent virtual Online Drawing Workshop — the image on the left is the “before” self-portrait, prior to instruction. The image on the right is the student’s final self-portrait after only 6 days working with Brian Bomeisler and using the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain method.

Here are just a few comments from recent students:

  • “At age 67, I took Brian's course, an absolute beginner with no drawing skill whatsoever. What I learned was something more valuable than how to draw, though I have to say I did improve. I learned how to see differently, how to perceive spatial relationships, understand negative space, and even got a little better with perspective, a skill that spills over into life. I am so grateful for my ‘new eyes.’ Muchas gracias, Brian!”

  • “All my life I thought I couldn’t draw. After Brian’s online workshop, I can draw! Betty’s book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, is powerful, but it took Brian’s workshop to launch me into an exciting new adventure. I find myself now looking at everything with a new appreciation of light, shape, and beauty. Thanks so much to Brian and Sophie for giving me the motivation to continue.”

  • “With my work on hold and sequestered in my home, I imagined learning a new skill that could bring me pleasure at this time. I’ve always wanted to draw but never had the skill or patience to sit down and learn.  I had read the first few chapters of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain 30 years ago and remember being fascinated by the possibilities of ‘unlocking’ that part of my brain …  without sounding too dramatic, the online workshop has not only changed my ability to draw (in astonishing and inconceivable ways), but it has also changed my perception of the things around me and my perception of the limitations I place on myself. Brian has this simple set of “skills” which almost magically unlock this artist inside all of us. The fact that he and his daughter Sophie who assisted him in the workshop could impart those skills and the confidence to use them immediately was uncanny. … I have sent pictures of my drawings to friends and family and people cannot believe I drew the things I drew. 30 hours can change your life!”

  • “I just completed the first ever Virtual Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain workshop. It was done virtually using Zoom due to the COVID crisis. In the class we had 5 first time attendees and 5 return drawers taking the course for the 2nd or 3rd time. I was a first-timer.  In a few words I would say ‘the course far exceeded my expectations.’ I am a 56-year-old, former CEO of 2,000-person company.  All my life I thought ‘being able to draw’ was analogous to being a good singer or being athletic.  Either you are or you are not.  Thankfully, I could not have been more wrong.  I now believe that anybody and everybody can learn how to draw really well. One really has to see the results to appreciate how much was accomplished in this class in such a short period of time. I hope to take this new skill of using the right side of my brain to continue to learn how to draw and do other forms of art. Perhaps most important is how using the right side of your brain can translate into many other areas of your life, giving you perspective you never had before.”